Book of the Week :: Old MacDonald in the City

Let's have a glance at - Old MacDonald in the City by Suzanne Williams.
About the Book: The book rhymes around Old MacDonald, who is a food vendor in the city, who owns a pushcart to sell snacks in an urban park. Whenever Old MacD's back is turned, his cart is swarmed with animals. Increasing numbers of different animals, from one horse to ten ants, everyone tries to steal food from Old MacDonald's corner food cart. How sad!!!

Mice squeak, pigeons coo, squirrels chitter chatter, ants skiddle-skaddle, cats meow... all around the cart's tasty treat. OldMacD tries hard to stop them from stealing his goodies. Poor Guy!!!!!


Mommy thoughts: This is 'sing along' book, featuring plenty of animals, not just counting or naming them, but it 'rhymes with the same sound/action that the particular animal makes. The neigh-neighing horse, bow-bow- 'ing' dog, caw-cawing craws... the list goes on. This is a funny book to read along with your child. I bet they will love mimicking the 'Sounds'.

I always love board books {you must be knowing the reason}. In that sense, this book is not very handy. I personally did not like the illustrations. I agree that the illustrator was able to create the environment- with animals troubling poor oldMacD, but I am sure it could have been made much better. The gloomy face fits oldMac very well. His jaunty beret and vest, and handlebar mustache look funny but suiting the character. Still, I would have loved it, if the animals were having bit more pleasant/smiling face. I must mention, the oil paintings portray 'the mess' very well, along with the behavior of each animal. Acts of thievery are Wickstrom's province and are captured well.

Liya's Take: She giggles when I sing it. She loves to imitate the sounds that each animal makes. She also tries to identify the animals in the pic and count them.

Old MacDonald had a cart, E-I-E-I-O.

 Beside his cart there stood ONE horse, E-I-E-I-O....

Resources: Author's website |  Amazon Link